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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: About investing in oil directly, here is some information members should know. Please correct me if I am wrong: Although Horizon ETF "HUC.TO" is less liquid than "USO", it has a an advantage over it in this environment: It holds the December contract, not the next 2 months contracts. In other words, USO bets on oil in the short term, and HUC.TO bets on oil in 7 months.

From Horizon: "HUC’s unique methodology is designed to provide the best possible exposure to the commodity. This is done by gaining exposure to the winter months (December) contract of each year, which is often the most liquid, to eliminate the monthly futures contract roll which often creates negative roll yield. Because the oil market is most typically in a state of contango (upward sloping curve), the process of providing investors exposure to the near- month contract 12 times per year creates a constantly changing underlying investment which can prevent the ETF from accurately tracking the commodity. HUC invests only in the December contract and executes its underlying exposure roll once per year, each June."
Read Answer Asked by Matt on April 21, 2020
Q: I have held IVE for many years and to sell I would have capital gains taxes to consider though not what they would have been a couple of months ago. Are there 3 - 5 dividend stocks that you think are solid bets to out perform the index coming out of the downturn over the medium term? (2-3 years)
Thanks Hugh
Read Answer Asked by Hugh on April 21, 2020
Q: Hi There,
Just curious if I could get your opinion on the following funds MAW130, XSP, XMS and XQQ. I am looking to invest some money outside of Canada with some decent balanced/growth potential.
Could you please list in order of preference with the first being the most favorable.
Thank You,
Read Answer Asked by Kevin on April 21, 2020
Q: Hi 5i team,

I enjoyed your flash update and the reasons for stock downgrades or holding the line, even though I am largely U.S. focussed these days. AKAM has come to my attention in a couple of analyst reports as being a backbone of the stay-at-home theme in routing traffic through its servers and its traffic levels are soaring. However, I don’t fully trust the theme in medicine and video conferencing as their valuations are extreme. I also note that on bad market days the stay-at-home stocks do well and on good market days, they do poorly, as if the market seems to be skeptical of them. So, does AKAM have some staying power if the stay-at-home trade ultimately wanes?

Thanks again for the insight.
Dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on April 21, 2020
Q: What is your opinion re: Floating Rate Prefs where the interest rate is set quarterly off of the Prime Rate (eg - BAM.PR.B). With the prime rate of 2.45% near the low of the last 20 years (2.25% in March 2009) BAM.PR.B is yielding about 5.75% which looks very attractive since there can't be much more risk of a move down in interest rates. (This assumes that next dividend is based off of the 2.45% and not 3.95% which was the basis for the last dividend that was paid - and is the basis for the indicative yield in Quotes of 9.5%) Ultimately rates will move up as will the dividend....so buying now pretty much sets the floor with quite a bit of upside. Do you agree? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Gary on April 21, 2020
Q: I have $20,000 to deploy in today's market. Should I do this at $500 a month, $1,000 a month or some other amount and time frame. The complete amount is ready to go. I am a 73 year old retired value investor with a good pension who enjoys dividends with a ten year + time frame. I will be investing in what I already have.
Thank you
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on April 21, 2020
Q: I know already this will be the most naive of questions to anyone with a business background -- but how in the world can oil trade at a negative value? I can understand the notion that "one has too much" and that one has so much that you're actually willing to PAY someone to take it away ... but ... really? How does this happen? What does this mean in the oil world? How can an industry continue to function? If this has been addressed elsewhere, I'd appreciate if you could just provide a link, saving you the grief of answering it twice. Is there any point in getting/staying in oil for the foreseeable future -- other than those who are comfortable with more advanced trading techniques, of which I am not.
Read Answer Asked by Sylvia on April 21, 2020
Q: Would that be an impact on non-energy stock price as the oil price went negative ? What are the possible scenarios ? Would that drive down other stock price as well ?
Thanks for your expert opinion.
Read Answer Asked by Lai Kuen on April 21, 2020
Q: In one reply you said inflation could be good for R/E. Isn't the following info copied from a Vancouver Sun article the negative?
"In steps that dwarf those taken during the global financial crisis, the federal housing agency and the Bank of Canada are ready to purchase billions of dollars worth of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities to backstop the market, while lawmakers passed a historic wage bill to stem job losses."
I would really appreciate insight and/or an explanation of what the statement means in lay terms.
Read Answer Asked by Gayle on April 21, 2020
Q: I am short on Consumer Stocks in my overall portfolio - can you give me some names to look at, both in the US and Canada - I'm interested in those that pay a dividend and are growing.
Appreciate you comments.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by JOHN on April 21, 2020